“Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.”

We get so much information during the day that doesn’t really tell us anything.

There’s a lot of things you can’t control. But you can always be a pro.

I would never call myself cultural elite, but you might be cultural elite.

The one thing for sure is, I don’t ever want to waste a movie. I don’t ever want to waste effort.

I don’t think there’s ever been a moment in history where that, as an artistic message, has played very well, because people in their hearts know that’s terrible and a lie.

Everyone is sort of in their own little area counting lines and no one talks when film’s not rolling. There’s constantly actors coming to me back behind the monitor screaming at me, “Why did my line count drop?” It’s a nasty tense environment.

Animals talking are very rarely funny. But animals behaving as animals – always funny.

Hollywood has to appeal to the broadest audience, and when it comes to most social and economic issues, America is progressive. Because of that, the messages that are in Hollywood movies tend to be, for instance, pro-environment.

Blazing Saddles’ is one of the funniest movies ever made.

I gotta say – if I clicked on a movie interview, and the first part was all about Walt Whitman, I’d love that article.

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.

Dave Herman as Michael Bolton is one of my favorite performances ever.

So you’re doing that the first two or three screenings, and then finally, you dial the movie in and it’s working, and at that point, it’s 50/50 as far as what’s funny and what’s working.

“Firewall” seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides “military” and “government?”

My mom then got Pell Grants, put herself through college to get a degree to get a better job. Because we were broke, I then had to go to a state school.

I think that the job of art and culture is to jump on that time and realize that it’s there and to push it just a little bit faster.

Rock ‘n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm.

Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.

It wasn’t only fanatics and drunkards who began conversations with strangers in public.

It wasn’t until I came out of my daze that I began to appreciate my accomplishment.

The “patron saint” of Japanese quality control, ironically, is an American named W. Edwards Deming, who was virtually unknown in his own country until his ideas of quality control began to make such a big impact on Japanese companies.

The situation began to change, revolutionary conditions was created…we simply wanted to change the regime.

I began to feel heard in that movement. But it was because my voice was resonating with other voices.

I began as a dramatist in the theater, so I’m always thinking about how a story moves, what it looks like, how to engage the senses.